I'm sorry to report that we lost our previous excellent Schools section when a hacker got at our boards on Wed. (See my note in Forum and Online Feedback - all is fixed/fine now.)

So we've restarted the section.. As you can see by the next thread, the talk begins anew. Feel free to start more topics.

And any of you interested in trying to get a law mandating anaphylaxis prevention/emerg. procedures in schools in your province, don't forget to see the Schools: Anaphylaxis Laws section. It's a good place to organize letter-writing campaigns to MLAS and MPPs or just to find others who are similarly interested.

My son's school is quite good, the staff are supportive and concerned. However, when I asked when the school nurse would be doing anaphylaxis training this year, I was told that as they had very few new staff and as they had had the training the year before they didn't feel they needed it. I do not feel that I can push the issue as I want to keep having a positive relationship with the staff, and so I choose my battles with care. If we had legislation, however, training would be a requirement.

Incidently, I met with some student nurses last month in Vancouver. They were going to offer anaphylaxis and Epipen training. They sent a letter to all the schools in Vancouver asking if any would like them to come and teach the staff and they had no replies at all.

Wonder if it's a case of being in the faces of administrators more than once to get their attention. Any chance you could e-mail me a copy of the letter so Allergic Living can follow up with the student nurses about it?

Thank you so much for this info, it will come in very handy for me. Can you please elaborate? I would LOVE to offer this at my daughter's school but haven't really known where to look? I would be curious to know if they would refuse it.

Pamela Lee wrote:

My son's school is quite good, the staff are supportive and concerned. However, when I asked when the school nurse would be doing anaphylaxis training this year, I was told that as they had very few new staff and as they had had the training the year before they didn't feel they needed it. I do not feel that I can push the issue as I want to keep having a positive relationship with the staff, and so I choose my battles with care. If we had legislation, however, training would be a requirement.

Incidently, I met with some student nurses last month in Vancouver. They were going to offer anaphylaxis and Epipen training. They sent a letter to all the schools in Vancouver asking if any would like them to come and teach the staff and they had no replies at all.

My (3 year old) daughter's Montessori school has a strict no nuts/peanuts policy and the children aren't allowed to share food. However, when I met with the new teacher's assistants for the first time (in after hours care) this year, they had no idea my daughter even had an allergy. I asked them where her backpack was (containing two Epis, her inhalers and Benadryl) and they had no idea. They had no idea where the teacher stored the extra Epi I provided for the school AND they had no idea how to use and EpiPen. To make matters worse, when I pulled out the EpiPen trainer to show them, one of the assistants told me she didn't want to learn at that time because it was almost 6:00 pm and she was too tired. The other assistant looked horrified and told her that it was very important but she refused to even watch me. After a meeting with the teacher and principal of the school (as well as providing posters, manuals and pamphlets about EpiPens and food allergies), the wayward assistant practically chased me down to get me to teach her how to use it. I think I frightened the bejezus out of the school but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

sorry - I never went back to this string (is that the right term?) and so I did not realize that anyone had written back about the student nurses. Just after I wrote that, we had a two week teacher's strike in BC, and I kind of lost focus - I will e-mail the students and see if they have any responses now - I will also try to figure out how to send the original e-mail to you, Gwen.

I realized I have been using the computer for 15 years - you would think by now I would have figured it out!!!

Pam, You can use copy and paste under "edit" on your tool bar, if you want to post it, or private message it via this forum. Highlight what you want, go to edit and click on copy. Then on your post, or wherever you want it, click on paste.

Or you can go to the original e-mail and click on "forward" on your tool bar, if you have an e-mail address of the person you are forwarding to.

I wasn't sure where to post this. So I thought this one looked good.
I had a real good meeting with the principal of our school today. I left feeling quite surprised.
As some of you may be aware My children attend a Catholic Elementary school I wrote a bit about it under British Columbia organizing in Anaphylaxis law.
(These are the items I presented to him)

Changes I feel are needed

*Educate students make presentations for in classroom Signs, Symptoms,Emergency procedures (Different levels of information) School nurse could probably provide this.*Large Posters for school entrances 8x10 Would do right away with original poster I presented to him. *Small signs for classroom doors with allergic students 4x6 I would work on this *We need signs showing signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis I would look for something appropriate *Educate all staff/ parents/ student supervisors-They should carry walkie-talkies
connecting them with a phone. He would start right away with the walkie-talkies*Have name of company and phone numbers ready for allergic parents for food days would need to work with lunch committee for this *I would like to see a yearly letter that parents need to sign stating that they are aware of Fatima being a peanut/nut free school didn't really discuss *No food is to be fed to allergic children without prior consent (French day tarts) need to look into this further Was unaware that this happened*Have a parent information night with a special speaker. need to look into this further

I can provide:Chapman’s products when need (maybe for sports day) Waist pouches as part of uniform I will provide prices and photo's for letter to allergic childrens parents On parent nights I can set up a booth with info-questions on allergies Thought this was an excellent idea

Are there any items that you can think of that would be a move towards a positive improvement?

I think the best thing that you could do is highlight how good the school is being, ask them if you could contact the media and let the media know how happy you are with the school. Contact the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and tell them how great it is that the school is so responsible, wouldn't it be great if every school was so responsive - make a positive example of them. Nominate the principal/school for some type of award or phone his/her superior and rave about how thrilled you are to have this sort of support and understanding. Put it in writing so it can go into the person's file.
cc. everyone you can think of.

I think we should have some sort of reward/certificate for everyone or group who is understanding and acommodating. That way awareness and education would be happening, and the people who are helping us would benefit. and the more the ones who don't understand see that level of understanding, the sooner they will begin to think about this issue. Have I used the word understand enough?

Thanks for your response. I had a struggle to get through to them but I think it is definately worth it and is now paying off a bit at a time.

The Principal however wants to kind of keep it toned down for now because there are many parents that are a bit too extreme on both sides of the playing field. I am trying to keep a level playing field without kicking up too much dust. (Listen to me you'd think that I knew how to play soccer) I would like the changes to occur in such a way that it would be fair for all.

*We need signs showing signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis I would look for something appropriate

Sil,

Anaphylaxis Canada used to distribute a poster with a drawing of a stick figure and all the signs associated with anaphylaxis. I still have it on my fridge at home in Canada. I don't know if Anaphylaxis Canada still distributes the poster. It may be worth asking.

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